Wefald regrets error in pact

K-State president says mistake was giving ex-AD lengthy deal

MANHATTAN &mdash; Kansas State athletic director Bob Krause once spoke with optimism about the groundbreaking contract extension awarded to his predecessor, Tim Weiser.

"Whenever you have an excellent person in a key leadership role, you want to do everything possible to ensure that person is with you for a long time," Krause, then K-State's vice president, said in 2006. "This 10-year rollover extension signals a long-term strategy on behalf of the university to ensure that its top athletic administrator and head coaches have long and successful careers at K-State."

Weiser's K-State career ended less than three years later, a separation that will cost the university $1.9 million. In light of those events, Krause and university president Jon Wefald now view the 10-year contract as a mistake.

"I can't over-emphasize the fact that we just made a mistake," Wefald said Wednesday, a day before details of Weiser's $1.9 million separation agreement became public. "I'll openly tell you that."

Wefald said K-State "got caught up in the BCS arms race" when other big-budget schools began expressing interest in Weiser. Krause delivered a similar message to Wildcat fans in an open letter posted Thursday on K-State's official Web site.

"In retrospect, agreeing to a 10-year administrative contract with Tim Weiser was probably not in the best interest of Kansas State University," Krause wrote.

At the time of his departure in February 2008, Weiser was earning roughly $670,000 in annual compensation. Because Krause earns $295,000 annually, Wefald said K-State can pay Weiser's $1.9 million settlement with funds previously earmarked for the AD's salary.

"I don't think we'll be paying ADs here at Kansas State $700,000 again," said Wefald, who will retire at the end of the academic year. "Who knows. I'm only going to be the president for another (few months). I'm just speculating about the future, (but) I don't think you have to pay an AD $700,000 to have a good one."

Not everyone shares that opinion. <a href="http://Bloomberg.com" target="_blank">Bloomberg.com</a> recently filed open-record requests with every public university in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision and reported that Florida's Jeremy Foley is the highest-paid athletic director with an annual salary of $965,000. Kansas' Lew Perkins ranks No. 2 with a $900,000 deal.

"Perkins runs athletics like a business &mdash; focusing on generating revenue while being efficient and keeping costs down," retiring KU chancellor Robert Hemenway told <a href="http://Bloomberg.com" target="_blank">Bloomberg.com</a> in an e-mail. "In five years, he has doubled the departmental budget and translated this financial success into concrete improvements."

At K-State, one of Krause's first major moves as athletic director was to give football coach Ron Prince a new contract with a larger buyout. That move backfired when the school fired Prince three months later, triggering the $1.2 million buyout clause.

Krause said buyouts for Prince and his assistant coaches will be paid from K-State's reserve fund. K-State also conducted fundraising to pay new coach Bill Snyder's $1.8 million contract and create a larger salary pool for his assistants.

"When you turn staff over, you budget it as a one-time expense," said Krause, who estimated the school would pay $1.7 million in buyouts to Prince and his coaching staff. "That's what you've got reserves for."

The additional fundraising occurred with K-State already seeking contributions for the $70 million Wildcat Victory campaign for facilities, fundraising efforts that could be further complicated by concerns over the large settlements awarded to Prince and Weiser.

One K-State donor said he stopped making financial contributions because of the instability within the athletic department, expressing frustrations echoed by K-State student Anika Bergh.

"It angers me because I pay so much money a year to be here and get the education that I want," said Bergh, a season ticketholder in football and basketball. "To have them throwing away money like that, it just makes me feel like it's money coming out of my pocket."

Wefald viewed the settlement as the first step toward a more fiscally responsible strategy, one he said will not include long-term contracts like Weiser's.